Short Message Service (SMS) are a currently common data service in a mobile communication network, which has become a predominant communication manner except voices for the majority of mobile subscribers along with increasingly popular mobile phones and flourishing short message services, and a number of value-added services for SMS also have been developed, such as a Short Message Receipt service, a Short Message Filtering service, a Short Message Personal Signature service, etc.
Currently, a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) has to be adapted to each addition of a Value-added Service for SMS (VAS-SMS) so as to support the new value-added service, which may aggravate the burden over the short message service center and bring inconvenience of developing and maintaining the value-added service.
A solution has been currently proposed in which value-added services for SMS are processed centrally through an additional network entity such as a VAS-SMS processing center to lower a frequency of adapting the short message service center. The inventors have identified during making the invention that in such a solution or like, the additional network entity executes partial processing of value-added services for SMS, thus adding the flexibility of developing a new value-added service for SMS, but no complete mechanism has been provided to ensure control of a short message processing flow by the additional network entity.